Tesla staff were reportedly told not to walk past Elon Musk's desk because of his wild firing rampages

Wired magazine reported in a deep dive on Tesla
published Thursday that Elon Musk had a habit of going on
firing sprees.

The reporter, Charles Duhigg, said he spoke to numerous
Tesla engineers, executives, and other employees over six
months about what it was like to work at Tesla during its Model
3 "production hell."

One source told Wired that they coined a term for
Musk's outbursts: "Elon's rage firings."

Sources described an instance where Musk fired a young
engineer on the spot for reasons that were unclear, shouting at
him to "get the f--- out."

In a statement Tesla disputed Wired's version of
events, and said its article was "overly-dramatic and
sensationalized."

Elon Musk was so prone to firing sprees that Tesla employees were
told not to walk past his desk in case it jeopardized their
career, according to
an explosive, in-depth Wired article published Thursday.

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The reporter, Charles Duhigg, said that over six months he spoke
to numerous Tesla engineers, executives, and other employees
about what it's like to work at Tesla.

One Gigafactory manager told Wired that they had stopped
employees from walking too close to Musk's desk for fear that a
word out of place might end up in their getting fired. The
manager called the outbursts "Elon's rage firings."

A former high-ranking executive told Wired that Musk would
occasionally say "I've got to fire someone today," and that when
the exec said Musk didn't, Musk would reply, "No, no, I just do.
I've got to fire somebody." Wired said a Tesla representative
disputed this but said Musk made "difficult but necessary
decisions."

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Another former executive told the publication that "everyone came
to work each day wondering if that was going to be their last
day."

In one instance, Wired reported, Musk fired a young engineer
whose name he didn't know for reasons he didn't explain.

A source who heard the conversation told Wired that one evening
at 10, Musk called the engineer over and pointed at a machine,
saying, "Hey, buddy, this doesn't work," and asking whether the
engineer was responsible.

Confused, the engineer asked Musk to explain what he meant.

"Did you f---ing do this?" Musk asked, according to Wired. When
the engineer said he wasn't sure what Musk was referring to, Musk
called him "a f---ing idiot" and told him to "get the f--- out
and don't come back!"

'The idiot bit'

Many sources who spoke to Wired also described frequent outbursts
where Musk would shout at people and call them "idiots." A senior
engineering executive said employees even had a name for Musk's
behavior: "the idiot bit."

"If you said something wrong or made one mistake or rubbed him
the wrong way, he would decide you're an idiot and there was
nothing that could change his mind," the executive said.

In a statement to Wired, a Tesla representative said: "Elon cares
very deeply about the people who work at his companies. That is
why, although it is painful, he sometimes takes the difficult
step of firing people who are underperforming and putting the
success of the entire company" at risk.

Tesla sent Business Insider the following statement:

"It's no secret that the Model 3 production ramp was
excruciatingly difficult for everyone at Tesla. We've been open
about that since the day we delivered the first vehicles and said
we were entering 'production hell.' But Wired's overly-dramatic
and sensationalized tale would have you believe that we somehow
pulled off this incredible feat - and succeeded in achieving
profitability and building a car that no one thought was possible
- by suppressing internal debates and randomly firing people for
no reason or simply because they disagreed with Elon. That
fundamentally does not make sense, as it would literally be
impossible for Tesla to still be here if that's how we operated.
After all, if you were to believe the Wired story and employees
really weren't able to disagree with Elon, rather than ramping
Model 3, Tesla would currently be focused on building cyborg
dragons, implementing a company-wide policy banning blue shoes,
and playing Monty Python videos on a 24-hour loop in all of the
break rooms…

"In order for Tesla to succeed, we must have extremely high
standards and work harder and smarter than everyone else. And
although it is painful, Elon and the company's leadership will
sometimes take the difficult step of letting people go who are
not performing and who are responsible for critical areas of the
business, and who as a result, are putting the success of the
entire company, including 45,000 people and their families, at
risk. This undoubtedly happened at Gigafactory last year when the
module line was the number one bottleneck and challenge facing
Tesla. But Elon cares very deeply about the people with whom he
works - Tesla owes its existence to its employees - and he
basically lived in the factory for months working hand-in-hand
with them to get production on track (though he doesn't even have
a desk in Gigafactory, contrary to Wired's reporting). While this
piece would make for a compelling dramatic screenplay, it's
certainly not news, since that would require it more accurately
reflect reality."